Those walking the streets of downtown Boulder Creek can now enjoy better pedestrian safety along the corridor formed by Highway 9, as a joint effort between local business, county, and transportation leader resulted in the removal of a handful of parking spaces near crosswalks to improve the visibility of pedestrians.
Efforts to increase pedestrian safety in downtown Boulder Creek began over a year ago when Supervisor Bruce McPherson and his office collaborated with Caltrans and the Pedestrian Safety Committee to identify potential safety issues in the area.
Following his election in 2012, McPherson held a series of Town Hall Meetings to get the community’s input regarding which projects were feasible and timely.
“This is a good example of a coordinated effort to provide a good public service to the people in the San Lorenzo valley and particularly to Boulder Creek,”
McPherson said.
Ginny Johnson, Supervisor’s Analyst for the McPherson’s Fifth District office, said that these town talks resulted in the formation of committees to better tackle safety and traffic issues in Boulder Creek.
“One of those committees … was the Pedestrian Safety Committee, and that committee did a terrific job in identifying improvements along the downtown corridor,” Johnson said. “Especially for pedestrians to increase visibility, increase signage, and to make sure that folks driving through Boulder Creek really could see the pedestrians crossing at key intersections.”
The Pedestrian Safety Committee walked with Caltrans, local public works officials, and McPherson and some of his staff, to identify different areas that could be improved in terms of pedestrian safety, said the chair of the Committee and President of the Boulder Creek Business Association, Justin Acton.
It can be a challenge for pedestrians to cross the busy Highway 9 intersection.
“So, you go from 45 miles per hour, to being in this little town and people don’t necessarily realize it,” Acton explained.
Several accidents and one fatality occurred along this corridor while the committee was investigating potential fixes for the quaint downtown area. These incidents highlighted the importance of making pedestrian safety a priority.
Caltrans Associate Transportation Planner John Olejnik reviewed the ideas proposed by the committee and agreed that changes needed to be made.
“Highway 9 through Boulder Creek is parallel parking and so having that first parking space removed gave that much more visibility for the drivers to see pedestrians and likewise the pedestrians see the drivers crossing the street,” he said.
On Nov. 20, Caltrans came out and put up the “no parking signs” for one parking spot in front of the crosswalks.
Caltrans has restriped all the crosswalks, created a new crosswalk parallel to Highway 9 to connect people to the Metro stop, and have put up more visible pedestrian crossing signs, Johnson said.
“It does eliminate four parking spaces, but the business association came up with 15 spaces in an alternative location so that’s an added benefit too,” McPherson explained.
McPherson’s office and the Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works worked together with the Boulder Creek Business Association to identify over 15 adjacent street parking spaces for the holiday season in the downtown economic corridor, Johnson said.
“We are obviously hoping to see no more accidents, that would be the best,” she said.
